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Friday, 20 June 2014

Things People Need to STOP Running in EDH

Over the last couple years, as the popularity of EDH as a format has grown, I've seen many players and many decks. I've also seen a lot of things that people need to stop running in EDH for various reasons. Here is just a selection of those cards:

Jace, the Mind Sculptor

The main issue I have with people running this card is one of transliteration. A lot of newcomers to the format think that if a card is great in Legacy, it'll be great in EDH. That is not the case here. Big Papa here will not see more than one activation, and it's either going to be an expensive Brainstorm, an expensive Boomerang, or a one-shot Precognition. You can't even cheat in the ultimate very easily since it requires quadruple the number of loyalty counters for it to work. All-in-all, a pretty lackluster card for EDH.

Force Spike

Yes, I have seen several people run this card in EDH. Do I even need to go into why this is a bad idea? EDH is about high-cost things, meaning you'll probably have a lot of mana to burn after you cast your stuff. One whole mana once is not going to do much. Cards like Patron Wizard and Flusterstorm can be used because it's not actually one mana. This is just a waste of a slot.

Ambition's Cost

Black simply has better draw options in EDH. I was considering putting Sign in Blood on here for that reason, but it's actually not as bad as this. This is 4-and-3-for-3 whereas Sign in Blood is 2-and-2-for-2. Plus, I won a game with Sign in Blood, so I can't call it a bad card for EDH.

Thoughtseize

Another issue of bad transliteration. Plus, in EDH, you'd rather have them exile cards since graveyards are such a ripe target (unless you're about to take what they discard). Still, it's not worth the 2 life investment to temporarily deal with a threat that your opponent probably has ways of recovering or redundancy to cover the loss.

Grim Tutor

I get it. You have money and you want to flaunt it. But there are better ways to do it. Foil your deck. Get guru lands. Get an autographed Brian Kibler playmat. Just don't run crap cards because they're expensive. You look like a rich twit when you do and no one outside of the 10-year-olds thinks you're cool.

Jackal Pup

Blasphemous Act is run frequently in EDH. Consider that next time you build a deck with this in it.

Mons's Goblin Raiders (and other vanilla things)

EDH is probably the worst format to run vanilla things in. The life totals are doubled and the games are longer. Your bears aren't going to do much in the long run.

I think that about does it for the EDH lesson today folks. I'll have another one up... eventually.